Sifting-screen.



No. 679,648. Patented July 30, l90l.

A. E. THORNTON.

SIFTING SCREEN.

[Application filed June 29, 1900.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet I.

WITNESSES: INVEN'TUR J Q' Wwrnfirz ATTORNEYS 2 Sheets-Shoat 2.

ATTBRNEY5 INVENTEJR tfl. E. ZVwrIZZZra E Patented July 30, l90l.

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A. E. THORNTON.

SIFTING SCREEN.

(Apphcatmn filed June 29, 1900 WITNESSES:

UNTTnD STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT E. THORNTON, OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA.

SlFTING-SCREEN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 679,648, dated July 30, 1901. Application filed June 29,1900. flerial No. 22,065. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT E. THORNTON, of Atlanta, in the county of Fulton and State of Georgia, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Sitting-Screens, of which the following is a specification.

The object of myinvention is to provide a sifting-screen to be used primarily as a separator to take the meal from the ground-up cottonseed immediately after leaving the huller, but which may also be used for a sand-screen or for other analogous purposes. It is designed with reference to securing a better adj ustability of the screens of a larger amount of shaker-surface in proportion to the floor-space occupied and to facilitate the substitution of different sizes of screens and to require a minimum amount of power and give a uniform action; and to these ends it consists in the special construction and arrangement of the device which I will now proceed to describe, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the entire machine; Fig. 2, a vertical longitudinal section; Fig. 3, a transverse section of one of the screens, taken through its subjacent discharge-spout; and Fig. 4 is a detail perspective view of one of the hanger-cuffs.

The main frame of the machine consists of three vertical posts A A A on each side, connected at top and bottom by a rectangular frame. The posts A A are set farther apart than A A and are connected by X-shaped braces A and similar braces A are arranged between A A Between the posts A A are arranged a vertical series of inclined shaking screens S S S S Each of these consists of a shallow flat-bottom trough (see Fig. 3) having at its lower end a subjacent transverselyarranged discharge-spouts, and having a little distance above its bottom a woven-wire screen 3. These screens in the vertical series are placed one above the other and inclined reversely, so that the material falling ofi the low end of one screen drops onto the high end of the next one below. The spouts s of the several screens discharge into hoppers T T T T of different altitudes, and these communicate at the bottom with a casing U, containing a spiral conveyer E. The material rejected by the lower screens S 01 which fails to pass through its Wires is delivered into a trough D.

For supporting the several screens so that they may be shaken their opposite ends are carried by bail-shaped hangers h 77., whose u pper ends are bent at right angles to the radial portion and enter seats or bearings d in the rectangular metal cuffs d, which closely embrace the posts A and A and are adj ustably fixed thereto at any desired height by binding-screws (1. (See Fig. 4.) By loosening these binding-screws and raising or lowering the cuffs on the posts the distance between the screens may be regulated or their inclination changed, as may be desired. This same support also forms a convenient and quick means for substituting new screens when changing the run of the machine.

For shaking the screens each has a connecting-rod, as shown at b U19 b connecting it with its own eccentric B B B B on a vertical shaft F, provided with a drive-pulley F. These eccentrics are set quartering or at an angle of ninety degrees to each other on the shaft, so that their thrust and pull on the screens are so divided up in the complete revolution of the shaft that the Work is performed in a graduated and uniform Way with but little vibration and noise and with a minimum of power. The connectingrods are all attached to the screens about their middle parts, the rods 5 and I) being connected to a cross-bar on the top side of the screens S and S and the rods 1) b being connected to the bottoms of the reversely-im clined screens S S This arrangement is of importance for several reasons. In the first place, it connects the rods with the screens at their centers of gravity, and, in the second place, it permits the inclination of the screens to be changed without changing the position of the attaching-points of the rods or changing the latter from their normal horizontal positions-that is to say, as any rod connects with its screen in the middle that screen may be raised at one end and lowered at the other to increase its inclination without changing the position of its joint with respect to its connecting-rod, said joint forming a center of motion about which the screen is adjusted and which adjustment therefore involves no change in the plane of the connecting-rod.

In the operation of my machine the groundup cotton-seed leave the huller and passing through the spout 0 fall on the top screen,

the meats being sifted through the wire screen,

while the hulls and meats which do not pass through drop onto the next screen, and .so on, the hulls passing on for further cleaning and the meats passing out through the spouts s to the hoppers T and conveyor U E.

By means of this shaker-screen the fine meats are not rolled or wallowed in the fine fiber, but a perfect separation is eii'ec'ted.

When used as a screen for cleaning cottonseed, the upper screen takes out all the material larger than a cotton-seed, letting the' seed fall through. The two next screens take out all the fine dust and sand, and the last The advantages of my invention are as follows: It requires the smallest amount of power, as the machine is self balancing or compensatingone shaker balancing the other,

as they are set on quarters. There is also a very large screen -surface in proportion to the floor-space. The mill can be easily changed by substituting different screens of larger or smaller mesh. The material to be separated is not wallowed, and the fine particles of meat do not get inseparably driven into the fiberof the bulls. Furthermore, the machine is all open and the opera-tor has at all times an unobstructed view of what the machine is doing.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A separating-screen comprising aframework having four vertical posts provided with hangers having vertically-adj ustable connections with said posts, a series of reversely-i-nclined screens supported upon said hangers, a series of horizontal rods connecting with VV-hen used as a cotton-seed said screens at points midway the length of the screens, and means for reciprocating said rods substantially as described.

2. A separating-screen comprising a framework having four posts provided with hangers having vertically-adjustable connections with said posts, a series of reversely-inclined screens supported upon said hangers, a series of horizontal rods connecting with said screens at a point midway the length of the screens, one set of rods being connected to their screens below their planes and the alternating set of rods to their screens above their planes, and means for reciprocating said rods substantially as described.

3. Aseparating-screen comprising a framework having-four vertical posts provided with hangers having vertically-adj ustable con nections with said posts, a series of reversely-inclined screens supported upon said hangers, a series of horizontal rods connecting with said screens at points midway between their hangers, one set of rods being connected to their screens below their planes, and the alternate set above their planes, a vertical shaft arranged beyond the ends of the screens and having. eccentrics or cranks connecting with and imparting reciprocating motion to said rods and screens substantially as described.

4. Asepa-rating-screen comprisingaframework having four vertical posts provided with cuffs or sleeves made vertically adjustable thereon, hangers swinging in said cuffs, aseries of reversely-inclined screens supported uponsaid hangers, a series of horizontal rods connecting with said screens at points midway between their h'a'ngers, one set of rods being connected to their screens below their planes and the alternate set above their planes, a vertical shaft arranged beyond the ends of the screens and having eccentrics or cranks set quartering, said eccentrics or cranks being connected to the horizontal rods to impart a balanced reciprocating motion to the screen-s substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to'this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALBERT E. THORNTON.

Witnesses:

JAMES S. FLOYD, D. B. DE SAUSSURE. 

